Movie: Care of Kancharapalem
Rating: 3.25/5
Banner: Praveena Arts
Cast: Subba Rao, Radha, Praveena Parachuri, Mohan Bhagath, Praneetha, Karthik Ratnam and others
Music: Sweekar Agasthi
Cinematography: Varun Chaphekar and Aditya Javvadi
Editing: Ravi Teja Girijala
Produced by: Praveena Paruchuri
Written and directed by: Venkatesh Maha
Release date: September 7, 2018
Ever since Rana took over the small film 'Care of Kancharapalem', the film has been making noise on the social media and all the celebrities who have watched the movie at preview have been raving about it.
Does the film justify all the hype? Let’s find out.
Story:
Set in Kancharapalem in Vizag, the film chronicles four different love stories.
1) Raju, a 49-year-old attender in a government office, gets irritated by constant questions from everyone in his area about his wedding, and also gets ridiculed for remaining bachelor. An officer Radha from Orissa moves to his office. She is widow with a grownup daughter. She develops a liking for him.
2) A worker in a wine shop who is just referred as Geddam by all starts liking Saleema, a prostitute who is regularly buys wine.
3) A rowdy named Paul Joseph likes a Brahmin girl.
4) A young boy Sundaram, son of a poor idol-maker, likes his classmate Sunitha. All the stories have a culmination and what is the final resolution?
Artistes’ Performances:
Not a single actor in the film is a known face. The film has entirely new cast. Since the film primarily revolves around Raju’s character, the new actor Subba Rao gets all the focus. He is quite natural and real. You don’t feel that he’s acting.
Radha as the Oriya woman is also natural actor, she gets her dialogues both in Hindi and Telugu perfect. There is no denying fact that there is not a single actor who has not given good performance. And a couple of other actors get registered.
They are Praveena Parachuri who has played the prostitute’s role so beautifully and Mohan Bhagath as her lover is so convincing. The young boy who has played Sundaram is cute.
Technical Excellence:
The film is made with modest budget of Rs 50 or 60 Lakhs. Despite budget constraint, the director has extracted best output from the cameramen. The film is entirely shot on location with mostly natural lighting and little art decoration.
The camerawork has given the film authenticity. Editing is another huge strength.
All the stories are connected well without disturbing the flow of the story or confusing the audiences. Music is in folk-style.
Highlights:
Naturalness and performances
Screenplay
Background Score
Twist in the end
Drawback:
Slow pace
Too much of arty feel
Analysis
New director Venkatesh Maha sets the mood right at the beginning of the movie with a song going on as various montage shots of life in Kancharapalem village and introduces Raju, the protagonist whose bachelor life is butt of the jokes for folks there.
Very soon we come to know that the director narrating various stories though Raju’s story remains in focus.
Four different ‘love stories’ of Raju and Radha (an officer and an attender), Sundaram and Sravanthi (School kids), a Christian rowdy and a Brahmin middle class girl and a prostitute and a shop worker are narrated simultaneously all within the setting of Gavara Kancharapalem (the characters keep on calling it as a village but it is actually a suburban locality in Vishakapatnam).
The director has made the locality as a village and showed the dwellers with fascinating characterizations. Leave out Raju and Radha’s story, all three stories have class or religion playing the villain’s role. Through these stories the director tries to put a mirror to the society.
However, it is the Raju and Radha’s story that glues us. A lot of humor is derived from Raju’s travails. He is a bindaas person who doesn’t believe in God and has remained bachelor for some reasons. Some think that he is gay (they call him Natugadu), some think he must be lacking virility.
On the other hand, he is now proposed by his officer who is in her 40’s and has a daughter. All these are told in engaging and humorous way.
The new director has taken his own sweet time in the beginning to establish all the four stories. As the film progresses towards the end, it turns quite engaging and then there is a twist that comes in the end which is effective.
Humor is its biggest strength. Natural performances from the actors is another asset. The informal dialogues peppered with street-language have added a certain charm. And also this street language dialogues may not go well with majority of audiences.
On the downside, the film has slow pace, takes plenty of time to establish and also has some stories that are too regular. There is nothing new in terms of the points or themes that it talks about either. Only the presentation and set up is interesting.
On the whole, ‘Care of Kancharapalem’ is an honest romantic drama that is narrated with realistic approach and in off-beat style. This will appeal to audiences who enjoy different movies. It may not have universal appeal.
Bottom-line: Slice of life drama
